ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Traveling Red Dress began in Caldwell, Idaho in 2014 by photographers, Sunny D. Neff and Christy Smith of Dreamhigh Photography.
The first gallery was held during the Caldwell Spring Fling in 2015 with 17 photographers participating. The gallery was featured by the Idaho Press Tribune in the Arts & Entertainment section and had remarkable success.
We continued on with the Traveling Red Dress into the second year and the quality of the images displayed at the gallery on June 4, 2016 was astounding. We were thrilled with the dedication and passion of the all of the creative photographers involved as well as the models, make-up artists, and everyone who brought this year to life.
It was decided that in order to make what is now known as The Traveling Dress Project bigger and better, we would form and a committee and move away from the color red. The committee that year consisted of Christy Smith, Sunny D. Neff, Krista Vanden Bosch, Ali Smith, and Alexia Wardell.
In 2018, Christy and Krista continued on with the project and were joined by Jennifer Whittig who are took the project to bigger and better heights with the 2018 gallery planned for the Chateau de Fleurs in Eagle, Idaho. At this gallery they debuted the dress for the 2019 year as well. We filed to rename our project, The Traveling Dress Project Association, LLC.
Entering into 2019, the committee was comprised of the returning Chairman, Christy Smith, returning committee member, Jennifer Whittig, also as Co-Chair, and joined by Nina Luque, donating her time to the Project for the first year as committee member and Co-Chair as well. Nina has a history of making beautiful pieces for many of the artists who have participated in the Project. 2019 was a huge success with two galleries completed -- the opening gallery on June 8th at Studio Boise in Boise, Idaho and a second daytime gallery being held again at the Chateau des Fleurs on June 12th.
We debuted the dress for 2020 designed by Monica Sailors Designs to much excitement and anticipation. We look so forward to bringing forth our 6th year of The Traveling Dress Project Association. We thank The Idaho Press Tribune and The Idaho Statesman for the interest they took in our Project and the coverage that they gave us, making more of the public aware of the art that we contribute to the community.
2020 was interesting year and the Gallery went on to an online platform due to the pandemic. It was hugely successful with over 4,000 views.
We are currently in the process of the 2021 year for the 7th Annual Traveling Dress Project with Christy and Nina at the helm. This year will be our biggest geographical year ever with the dress seeing two provinces in Canada, and traveling from several places in Idaho to two stops in Texas, Wyoming, Michigan, Kentucky, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maine.